Volunteers save dogs
Rescue group found one dog frozen to death
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, January 11, 2016
IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
On the evening of Dec. 5, Bernie Thompson, a driving force of the dog-rescue group Diamonds in the Ruff, walked around Cambridge Bay dropping treats off to a few of the hamlet's dogs.
Mother Fifi, left, Butterball and Hopper, dogs owned by Pokok Ohokannoak of Cambridge Bay, are part of the family. All three dogs are spayed and are sheltered overnight, spending their days outdoors. - photo courtesy of Pokok Ohokannoak |
Soon after, she took to Facebook: "Found one frozen, dead, tied to its owner's steps."
Thompson and her husband, Al Thompson, had been keeping an eye out for this dog.
"We had interest in the dog because we sent it to the vet a couple of months back because he had an abscess on his head that broke. The only way for us to get the skin to heal was to send the dog out. So we sent the dog to the vet in Yellowknife," Thompson told Nunavut News/North.
"The owner said we could only send him out if we brought him back. We didn't really want to bring him back. But we did.
"He told us and promised us he was going to take care of his dog. It did cost us $2,300."
Thompson said after the dog was returned to the owner, she and her husband checked on the dog from time to time. But the couple had been busy and didn't manage to visit until that fateful Saturday.
"My husband went by to feed the dog and found him frozen," she said. "Dogs do freeze up here. But normally dogs don't freeze if they're fed well. Dogs will freeze if they're not fed well and they have no body fat. We sent the (dog's body) out and the vet said it died of malnutrition.
"So he did get hungry, and starved, and froze."
A bit later in the month, Thompson and her husband had to send another dog to Yellowknife.
"He had a chain embedded in its neck. That's another fiasco. The chain got too tight. The puppy was two years old. Nobody changed his collar or his chain.
"The dog survived with major surgery. They had to cut the skin and move the flesh away to get the chain out."
Thompson sighs and her voice slows, heavy with sorrow.
"It's a very sensitive issue for us. Some people here think we're doing it just because we're from the south and we're racist toward Inuit, telling them how to run their lives ... That's not it. At all. Our main concern is that animals need to be protected."
Thompson and her husband have even been accused of taking dogs, stealing them.
"We've been accused of selling dogs and making money. If you only knew how much we pay to do this."
Financing Diamond in the Ruff is only possible through donations and fundraising.
"We have bingo, we have bake sales - whatever we can do," said Thompson.
Transporting a dog to Yellowknife from Cambridge Bay costs $600 to $700 in cargo fees. Canadian North provides the free transport of two crates a month, but that's not nearly enough, Thompson said, although she's grateful for what the airline offers. In the five-plus years the couple has been in Cambridge Bay, they've rescued nearly 250 dogs.
"They all go to the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) in Yellowknife. They've never turned us down. We've sent as many as 10 dogs at a time," said Thompson.
Despite the rampant abuse and neglect taking place, Thompson insists there are a lot of good pet owners.
"A lot of people here take care of their dogs. There are a lot of good people that love their dogs. We're not pointing fingers. We're not trying to shame anybody."
The Iqaluit Humane Society, with 15 to 20 volunteers, receives about 25 dogs a month, which are generally sent for adoption in the south. The shelter space is loaned to the society by the city.
"As far as operations go, they're control, we're care. If an injured animal comes in, we fundraise to provide treatment regardless of whether it's a city animal or a humane society animal," said Janelle Kennedy, president of the Iqaluit Humane Society.
The society has had to euthanize only one dog. Although Kennedy says staff would prefer to be a 100 per cent no-kill organization, she says it's never 100 per cent.
As with Diamond in the Ruff, which raises between $7,000 to $9,000 to bring up a veterinarian team from Calgary in the summer, the Iqaluit Humane Society holds spay and neuter clinics. The staff try to offer them for free, which takes considerable fundraising efforts. Some donations also come in.
"In the past three years, we've spayed, neutered and vaccinated close to 500 dogs," said Thompson. "People seem to be learning that you need to take care of your pet."
Kennedy says the Iqaluit facility also takes animals from other communities.
"We arrange rescues through Pangnirtung, Clyde River, Resolute, Grise Fiord, Iglulik, Chesterfield Inlet, Rankin Inlet, Arviat, Cape Dorset, Kimmirut, occasionally Qikiqtarjuaq and Pond Inlet, and we've had a couple from Arctic Bay. We don't advertise. If we advertised in any big way I feel like the floodgates would open."
